Of the Angel, Of the Night
by jewelsbyers
Summary: Ruby is a Shadowhunter who has high expectations put on her shoulders. Kristy is a vampire with a secret. When the two discover a plot that could destroy their world, they must put aside their differences and trust each other... or die.
1. Chapter 1 Twins

**Chapter One  
Twins  
**

The girl was stunning. Her skin was a light gold colour and her thick blonde hair, curling in the damp, August heat, glowed like a halo in the late afternoon sun. A pair of emerald green eyes blazed out from her face. Beside her walked a boy with her golden toned skin and blonde hair, but his eyes were gold rather than green. The boy also had hints of strawberry in his short, blonde crop, whereas the girl had no sign of this. The boy walked with the casual, confident stride of a person who knows they are attractive and enjoys it, while the girl walked with the stride of someone who was absolutely furious. 

"That was the stupidest thing you could have done, Mike!" she snapped at the boy. "What were you thinking?" 

The boy, Mike, instantly assumed a wounded air. "Your lack of faith in me is insulting, Ruby, I had everything under control." 

"It didn't look like that to me," Ruby told him. "It looked like that faerie had the upper hand." 

"He did not!" Mike said, but it sounded like he was lying. 

"Oh yes he did!" Ruby said. "He had your arms twisted behind you and was sitting on top of you!" 

"Alright, so maybe I was in a tight situation," Mike admitted grudgingly. "But I don't need my baby sister to come to my rescue, alright? Especially not with a faerie, two werewolves, a half-nixie and an ifrit watching. It's embarrassing!" 

"So you'd have preferred it if I'd let the faerie dislocate your shoulders, would you? And I'm not your baby sister, I'm your _twin_ sister." 

"You are younger than me by a full minute and thirty-eight seconds," Mike said in a superior tone. "That makes you my baby sister." 

"You're a stuck-up, arrogant pig, Mike" 

"Well, as Uncle Alec would say, I am my father's son." 

"I have my doubts," Ruby told him. "You're even worse than dad." 

Mike muttered something uncomplimentary under his breath about sisters. Ruby rolled her eyes and stalked ahead of her brother, pretending she hadn't heard what he'd said. 

It was typical of Mike to believe that he was utterly and completely invincible. That was what had caused him to get into a fight with the faerie at Taki's. As usual, he hadn't been able to keep his mouth shut, and some inappropriate remarks about the faerie's girlfriend had led to a brawl. Ruby had broken it up, but not before Taki, the chef, a warlock and the owner of the restaurant, had come storming out and told the pair that if they ever darkened his doorstep again, he would cut them into pieces and make a stew out of them. In short, Mike and Ruby had been banned from Taki's. 

As she walked, Ruby wondered what her parents would have to say about this. Her mother would be furious, of course, but their father might let them get away with it. That wasn't to say that their father was a softie, but he would probably not see a brawl with a faerie as too greater crime. If Aunt Isabelle was at the institute, then she would probably be able to reason with their mother, but Aunt Isabelle was in Idris with her fiancé. Nope, unless their father let them off the hook, they were going to get a serve and a half from their mother. Ruby slowed her pace, anything to put off the confrontation with her mother was fine by her. 

"Thanks for waiting up," Mike said sarcastically, coming along side her. 

"We're going to be in it when we get home," Ruby said. "Mom's going to have a fit." 

"Only if we tell her what happened," Mike said in a crafty voice. 

"What?" asked Ruby. 

"Well, mom's not going to know what happened if we don't tell her," Mike said. "So, if we don't tell her about the fight and getting thrown out of Taki's then –" 

"Then she can't get mad at us!" Ruby said. "Mike, you're a genius!" 

"It's been said," Mike told her. Ruby smacked him on the shoulder. 

"Ow!" he complained. "Watch it, that's tender." 

"I know," Ruby told her brother. 

As it turned out, all hopes of getting away quietly were dashed when the pair reached their home. As they rounded the corner and saw the massive, gothic cathedral that marked their home, they saw something like a small blaze burning in front of it. 

"Uh oh," Mike said, turning to his sister. 

"Mom," Ruby said, looking pale. 

Clarissa Lightwood, their mother, was standing in front of the cathedral, watching her children inch closer to her from the other end of the street. Her red hair was lit up by the afternoon sun, giving the impression that there was a fire burning atop her head. 

The twins walked as slowly as they possibly could towards their mother, like two criminals going towards their execution. They walked as if through wet cement, seeming to struggle to place one foot in front of the other. When they eventually reached their mother, they seemed to have shrunk, their shoulder hunched and their heads down. 

Clarissa pointed at the door to the church. 

"In," was all she said and the twins walked dejectedly into the cathedral. Their mother followed, walking just behind them. They walked through the empty church and to the elevator. When the gilded birdcage arrived to take them up into the institute, Mike turned to his mother. 

"Mom, we can explain –" 

"You'd better," Clarissa said. 

"It was all –" 

"Not yet." 

Mike closed his mouth and stepped into the elevator, his sister and mother following him in. He and Ruby exchanged looks full of foreboding as the elevator took them up and into the Institute. When the doors opened, Clarissa led the way down a long corridor to the library. On the way they passed the empty rooms that could offer shelter to Shadowhunters if they needed it and their own bedrooms. As they approached the library, they heard muffled voices coming from behind the door. 

"Is that Uncle Alec?" Ruby asked curiously and her mother turned and nodded curtly. 

"That means Magnus Bane is here too," Mike muttered any his breath. "I wondered how mom found out so quickly." 

"I heard that, Michael Lightwood," Clarissa said. "Consider yourself lucky Magnus was here, imagine how much angrier I would be if I found out later that you'd lied to me, as I know you would have tried to." 

Mike shuddered at the image of his mother being any angrier than she already was and Ruby decided not to try and picture it. Their mother opened the door to the library and gestured her children through it. They walked in. 

Had they not been in so much trouble, they would have been excited to greet their dark haired uncle, who was sitting on a couch beside his partner, High Warlock Magnus Bane. Mike didn't like Magnus, he thought the warlock wore too much glitter, dressed too outlandishly and was altogether far too strange. Ruby, on the other hand, liked him. Magnus's eccentricity made him a likeable person, as far as she was concerned. Magnus smiled hugely at the two Shadowhunter children as they entered the room. Their Uncle Alec wore an expression which told his niece and nephew that he was none too impressed with their behaviour. Ruby and Mike already knew their mother was furious and – 

"Where's dad?" Ruby asked, looking around for her blond haired, golden skinned father. 

"Never you mind that now, Ruby," her mother told her. "You and Michael have some explaining to do." 

"I think I agree," Magnus put in. "Imagine getting into a fight with a faerie that resulted in being banned from Taki's. This is a story I simply have to hear! Tell me, how did it start?" 

"We are not encouraging this behaviour, Magnus," Clarissa said firmly. 

"I have to agree with Clary, Magnus," Alec said. "This is terrible behaviour for Shadowhunter children to be exhibiting." 

"Next thing you know there'll be a goddamn law against it!" Mike snapped. "We didn't do anything wrong!" 

"Are you trying to tell me," Clary whispered, staring at her son, her voice deadly, "that you were thrown out of Taki's for doing NOTHING WRONG? WHY ARE YOU LYING TO ME!" 

"It's not like that, mom!" Mike said. "When I say 'we' I mean myself _and _Ruby. See, _we _didn't do anything wrong,_ I _did. Rubes broke up the fight, in fact." 

Ruby made a face. "Don't call me 'Rubes'." 

One thing you had to give Mike credit for was his honesty. If he had done something wrong and was caught, he would admit to it, even if he had lied about it to begin with. Eventually, he would always come clean. 

Clary looked from her son to her daughter and back again. Her gaze then locked on Mike. 

"Are you telling the truth?" 

"I'll swear on the angel if it would make you believe me," Mike said, standing up straight and proud. He stared his mother straight in the eye as he spoke. 

Clary looked at her son for a long moment. 

"I believe you," she said. "You are telling me the truth. Ruby, you may go." 

Ruby gave her brother a grateful smile and left the library. She was just at the door when she said: "Mom, where's dad?" 

"In the greenhouse," Clary said. 

Ruby thanked her and left. Just before she closed the door she heard Magnus say: "Now, let's hear the story, my boy!" and her mother's disapproving "Hmmph!" 

She closed the door and went to the greenhouse to find her father.


	2. Chapter 2 Family

**Chapter Two  
Family**

Ruby found her father exactly where her mother had said he'd be: in the greenhouse. Ruby had always liked it in the greenhouse. When she'd been little, most of the plants had been taller than her and it had been easy to pretend that she was a brave Shadowhunter, like her mother or Aunt Isabelle, fighting her way through a mythical jungle to rid it of demons.

She found her father sitting among the leaves of a plant that looked like a cross between a tree and a bush, his head buried in an old, leather-bound book. The plant had a sliver-grey trunk, with a bush of purple leaves sitting at its top. Some of those leaves hung down from the bush, creating a thin curtain. Ruby knew her father often came up here if he wanted some time on his own. Everyone else who frequented the institute – Uncle Alec, Aunt Isabelle, Clary and Mike – wouldn't come near this tree because it made them sneeze. In fact, Uncle Alec and Aunt Isabelle wouldn't come in the greenhouse at all because of allergies. Clary enjoyed it up here, as long as she didn't have to go near 'that damn tree'. Only Ruby and her father were immune to the thick, heady scent of the tree. In fact, both of them quite enjoyed the smell.

Ruby's father saw her before she saw him.

"Unless Clary has dyed her hair," came his sarcastic drawl, "I think I see my daughter coming my way."

Ruby laughed. "Hello, dad. I wondered if you wanted some company."

"I don't see why I wouldn't," her father said, putting down his book. "Come and join me."

Ruby parted the thin curtain of purple leaves and sat down next to her father. He was dressed casually, in jeans and t-shirt rather than in fighting gear, but that wasn't unusual. Where her father's time had once been taken up by fighting demons and saving the world (a feat which he'd accomplished when he was only as old as Ruby), it was now taken up with the day-to-day running of the institute.

When Robert and Maryse Lightwood had retired from Shadowhunter life and gone to live in Idris, the new Clave had appointed their oldest son, Alec, to run the New York Institute. Alec had refused, wanting to live with Magnus rather than at the Institute and Isabelle, who would have been the next candidate chosen, was living in Idris. Clary and Jace had offered to take on the role, Clary had been pregnant at the time and it would give them a stable place to raise their children. Considering the pair had saved the Clave from Valentine all those years ago, the Clave didn't refuse and Jace and Clary Lightwood had been appointed guardians of the Institute.

"What are you doing up here, dad?" Ruby asked her father. "Are you avoiding everybody for a reason?"

"Yes," her father said. "I have a severe allergy to warlocks of the Magnus Bane variety. Nothing good ever came from associating with someone who wears that much glitter."

Ruby had to smile.

"Be serious dad," she said. "Are you up here for a reason?"

"You sound like your mother," Jace said. "She hounded me all the way up here, talking about two delinquents called Michael and Ruby who got themselves banned from Taki's after insulting a faerie woman and fighting with her boyfriend."

It occurred to Ruby that her father might be, however uncharacteristically, unhappy with what had happened at Taki's.

"It wasn't quite that simple dad," she said, preparing the launch into an explanation. "You see, Mike –"

"I didn't ask for any explanation, Ruby," Jace said, a smile ghosting across his face. "I'm just thinking that, despite all the trouble I Got into at your age, I never did something so bad I was banned from Taki's by Taki himself. If I had, I think Maryse would have skinned me alive."

"That sounds like something Mary… er, Grandma would do," Ruby admitted.

Maryse Lightwood was a formidable woman, even in her old age. Ruby could remember a time when her grandmother had seemed a frightening figure. She used to hide behind Clary whenever they went to see her. Eventually Maryse had one her granddaughter over, but Ruby still had trouble calling her 'Grandma'. Grandmas should bake cookies and fuss over their grandchildren, Maryse did none of those things. She was more likely to drill Ruby and Mike in fighting and ask how many demons they'd killed than to spoil them.

"But, back on track," Ruby said to her father. "You still haven't told me why you're up here."

"I give you ten points for being persistent, Ruby," Jace said.

"Come on, dad!" Ruby begged. "You're hiding –"

"I," Jace said, drawing himself up and staring at his daughter in mock horror, "am a Shadowhunter. Shadowhunters do not 'hide'."

Ruby rolled her eyes. "OK, fine, you're _not _hiding under the tree that everyone is allergic to, you're just sitting under it. Why?"

Jace was silent for a moment before he said, "I simply wanted to get away from your mother's hounding, Ruby."

"Oh," Ruby was shocked.

"Please don't take that the wrong way," Jace told his daughter. "I love your mother deeply, but sometimes she can be a little overzealous when she hears what you and your brother have been up to. We had a disagreement and I thought I'd come up here while she dealt with the pair of you. Which then brings me to the question, dear daughter, of why _you_ are up here? Surely your mother can't have finished with you yet?"

"It was all Mike's doing," Ruby explained. "So he played the gentleman and got me off."

"_Was_ it all Mike's doing?" asked Jace.

Ruby shrugged. "Kind of, he started it, but I broke up the fight. Mom seemed to think that, since I broke up the fight, I didn't deserve what was coming."

"That sounds like Clary," Jace said.

Ruby had to admit that her father was right. As much as her mother might shout and rant and rave when her children did something wrong, she was fair.

Ruby sat with her father in silence for a few moments before she said, "Well, I'm going to go and see if Mom's finished grilling Mike. Nice talking to you, dad."

Jace said something to a similar effect, and picked up his book as Ruby left the greenhouse. She wandered back into the institute and then to her brother's room. She could hear music from her brother's favourite mundane band, _Simple Plan_, playing from behind the door, so she assumed that he was in there.

"Mike!" she yelled, pounding on the door. "Lemme in!"

She heard her brother groan from behind the door and _Simple Plan _were cut off mid-verse. Mike threw open the door and glared at his sister.

"What do you want?"

"Has mom finished with you, yet?" Ruby asked, pushing past her brother and into his room. He closed the door and went to sit down on his bed. Ruby settled on the floor rug, folding her legs underneath her.

Mike nodded. "Yeah, or, at least, I _think_ so. She sent me to my room, but that's all."

"For now," Ruby said ominously.

Mike glared at his sister, but had to admit she had a point. It was rare that their mother let them get away with just being sent to their rooms.

"Do you reckon you'll be grounded?" Ruby asked her brother.

"Probably," Mike said. "I reckon we must be the only Shadowhunter kids in the world who get grounded. It's usually a strictly mundane-only punishment."

"Well, mom was brought up as a mundane, remember?"

"Actually," said Mike, unable to resist being a smart arse, "I don't. I wasn't born when mum was growing up. I wasn't even a twinkle in her eye."

"I think you mean _we _weren't even a twinkle in her eye," Ruby corrected her brother. "We're twins, remember."

"Unfortunately, yes," Mike said. "I must have done something really bad in a past life to get stuck with you as a sister." But he said it with a smile on his face.

This kind of banter was common enough between the twins. They teased each other from sunrise to sunset three-hundred and sixty five days of the year. There were lines in the sand, of course, where teasing went from being fun to being offensive, but they had never crossed those lines. Nor did they intend to. They cared about each other too much to do anything that might risk the other being offended.

The twins continued their chatter well into the evening and, when they went into the kitchen to see about dinner, they found their mother cooking up pasta with cabonara sauce.

"That smells good," Mike said. "I'm starving."

Their mother turned around and gave Mike a smile. It was an angry smile, but behind it the twins could still see the love their mother had for them.

"Michael Lightwood," she told him. "You're grounded, and no amount of compliments will save you."

"Figures," Mike muttered, then he brightened up. "But, if I'm grounded, at least I won't have to see anyone who knows about what happened at Taki's."

"Oh, I don't know about that," Magnus suddenly appeared, with Alec following him.

"We hope you don't mind, Clary," Alec said apologetically, "but we were hoping you could stay for dinner."

"That's fine," Clary said with a smile, gesturing to the kitchen table. "Make yourselves comfortable."

Make moaned. "I'm going back to my room, bring me some food, will you, Rubes?"

He didn't give his sister a chance to respond before he left the kitchen.

"Don't call me Rubes!" Ruby shouted after her brother's retreating back.

"He really doesn't' like me much, does he?" Magnus said, not sounding the least bit concerned by it.

Jace joined them a few minutes later and, when dinner was ready, Ruby loaded up two plates and said she was going to eat with Mike in his room. She ignored her mother's protests and Magnus's chuckle.

"I wonder how many more people I can drive away from your table?" the warlock said jovially.


End file.
